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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24138910">Blood and Scales</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cougwar/pseuds/Cougwar'>Cougwar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rammstein</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood and Injury, Gen, Hurt Paul, Merman Till, One Shot, Rescue, mermaid au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:54:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24138910</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cougwar/pseuds/Cougwar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was meant to just be a fun night out. The five of them on Richard's boat with an endless supply of alcohol, loud music, and conversation about whatever they wanted to talk about.</p><p>But then Paul got hurt.</p><p>Luckily he's rescued by a man - who may be more than just a man. </p><p>(Was this all just an excuse to write Till as a mermaid? You bet it was.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>No Romantic Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blood and Scales</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The Merman line breaker is my own art.</p><p>Please forgive any mistakes. Point them out and I shall fix them :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>"Come on guys!" Schneider pulled his legs up from where they had been dangling into the water off of the swim deck, before carefully standing up and sitting back on the top of the seat that made up the back of the small marina boat to give Ollie and Paul enough room to pull themselves up. "Richard is getting bored just floating around, and we're getting a little close to the shore. Let's go speed around for a little."</p><p>"Of course, we are just obedient followers that shall obey and grant Richard's every want and desire!" Paul joked as he quickly pushed himself through the water and floated beside the swim deck, letting Ollie climb up before him. "As long as I get to have the last of the gummy bears. I bought those and Richard has been stealing them all!"</p><p>"Hey!" Richard popped into view behind Schneider, a faux angered expression on his face while he waved his alcohol bottle around as he gestured at Paul. "Don't talk shit, I'm the driver here. I'll drop you off back on the shore if I decide I don't like you! And the gummy bears are my payment for the gas."</p><p>"It's four against one Richard," Flake deadpanned as he flopped down onto the chair across from the back bench of the boat. "I think we could overpower you and take control of the boat if we wanted."</p><p>"Yeah, but you four would be hopeless at driving this, especially at night." Richard scoffed, ambling back to the front of the boat and sitting back down at the wheel as he took another sip from his beer. "You all would probably crash straight into the island's shore or go right up the boat ramp and onto land without me here to captain it correctly!"</p><p>Paul laughed at the antics of his friends as he clambered back up the swim ladder onto the swim deck, water cascading off of his swim trunks and body, loudly dripping onto the deck. Paul took a moment to glance around them, a smile placed upon his face as he took in the lake that they had been boating around for the last hour.</p><p>The lake was a large one, with a small island in the center that the five of them often frequented to hang out and have beach fires on their free days. Today they were just boating around and hanging out, but Paul was definitely relishing in the company of his friends. Turning back to get into the boat, Paul smirked before he shook himself off like a drenched dog, everyone around him groaning as he showered them in droplets.</p><p>"Agh, Paul!" Flake cried out, pulling his glasses - now coated with a spattering of water droplets - from his face with an annoyed grimace as he leaned back against the seat he was settled in. "I just cleaned these!"</p><p>"Come on Flake, you can't tell me you expected your glasses to stay clean when we dragged you out of bed at eleven to come boating with us!" Schneider chuckled as he handed Flake a paper towel from the roll that had been tossed into the boat many trips ago. They always seemed to make some sort of mess or something that needed paper towels.</p><p>Paul reached out and grabbed a soft towel from where they were piled on the back bench of the boat, quickly toweling off his hair before wrapping it around his waist and quickly jumping from the swim deck and over the back of the bench, settling himself down on it with a comfortable sigh as Richard started the boat back up.</p><p>"Want another beer? We've got-" Ollie paused and looked up as a loud thunking noise grew louder, before groaning and narrowing an unimpressed gaze back at Paul. "That's the swim ladder, you didn't pull it up."</p><p>"So?" Paul shrugged nonchalantly. "No big deal." Paul turned to the front of the boat, calling up to his black-haired friend. "Richard, we need to pull the swim ladder up! Slow down and I'll get it."</p><p>"Slow down?!" Richard yelled over the loud noise of the engine and the loud crashing of water against the hull of the boat. "Nah, you'll be fine! Just hold on to someone and pull it up. I've done it before, you'll be fine."</p><p>Paul made a move to protest, but cut himself off before he could even begin. He knew Richard would be too stubborn to go back on what he said. Once that man picked a side, he stuck to it.</p><p>"Schneider, want to make sure I don't fall out and die?" Paul sighed as he unwrapped his soft and comfortable towel from around his waist, rising from his seat as he looked over to Schneider. "Because I'd really prefer not to be turned into a Paul Smoothie from the propeller if I'm being honest."</p><p>"Sure, sure." Schneider handed Flake his beer to hold and rose, walking the few small steps over to Paul and kneeling on the seat, holding onto the rail on the side of the boat while extending his other hand for Paul to take.</p><p>Paul grasped Schneider's offered hand tightly in his, before swinging his legs over the back of the boat and stepping onto the swim deck, swaying slightly as the boat hit a patch of rough water.</p><p>It was one misplaced step, everything happening in a matter of moments.</p><p>One of Paul's feet landed on the edge of the slick swim deck and promptly flew out from beneath him. Scheider was yanked downwards, his chest slamming painfully against the back of the seat as his hand became the only thing holding Paul's tumbling body up. Paul's body violently slammed onto the swim deck, his head loudly impacting with the sharp edge of the platform with a sickening <em>crunch</em>. With a cry of pain, Paul went limp.</p><p>The surprise from Paul falling loosened Schneider's grip, and his fingers were pulled from his friends' wet and slippery ones, leaving Paul with nothing keeping him from falling from the boat.</p><p>Narrowly missing plunging into the waters right below the swim deck and having his limbs go right into the spinning blades of the boat's propeller, Paul tumbled through the air for a few moments before his body violently and audibly slammed into the foaming white wake that was left behind by the boat and was sucked beneath the waves, quickly disappearing from Schneider's eyes as the boat roared away from where Paul had plunged into the lake and left the floundering man in the dark water.</p><p>The only sign that the man had ever been there was the spots of bright red blood spattered across the edge of the swim deck where Paul had fallen.</p><p>"Shit!" Schneider cursed, whirling to meet Ollie and Flake's widened eyes as they stared at each other in horror, barely registering what had just happened. "<em>Shit!</em> Richard, Paul fell!" Schneider turned back to the darkened waters, his hands gripping the side rail as he scanned the water where his friend had fallen. "Fuck!"</p><p>"He <em>what</em>?" Richard cried out, head whipping to look back at his friends, all of which had risen and were gathered at the back of the boat with horrified expressions placed across their faces. "Where?!"</p><p>Flake quickly ran to the front of the boat, standing next to Richard and pointing out the rough area where Paul had fallen.</p><p>Richard let out a stream of muttered curses, rising to stand from his seat, peering over the windshield as he turned the wheel, the boat slowing as he returned to the rough area where Paul had fallen into the lake.</p><p>The four of them pulled out their phones with shaking hands, turning on their flashlights and shining the bright lights over the dark waters, illuminating the pitch-black night as they searched for their missing friend.</p><p>Paul was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>"Oh fuck. Oh shit, oh my god." Schneider dropped his phone onto an empty seat and began to nervously pace back and forth in the small area between the seats, his trembling hands raising to tightly grip at his damp hair. "<em>Fuck</em>, man! What are we going to do?!"</p><p>"He wasn't wearing a lifejacket..." Flake quietly murmured, slumping down to sit in a chair, eyes wide but unseeing, his mind replaying the moment that Paul slammed into the water over and over.</p><p>"This is all my fault." Richard murmured, before turning and swinging a fist into the side of the boat, cursing loudly as pain exploded through the appendage. "Fuck! I should have slowed down!"</p><p>"No.. it was <em>me</em>," Schneider blankly stared down at his hands. "He trusted <em>me</em> to keep him safe, and... I let go."</p><p>"Should we call the cops? Search and rescue?!" Richard cradled his hand to his chest, eyes wide as he looked out at the dark waters surrounding them. "What are we going to do?!"</p><p>"There's no signal out here. But the time we get back to the shore and far enough back to town to get signal.." Flake trailed off, but they all knew what he was going to say.</p><p>It would be too late.</p><p>"Okay." Ollie took in a trembling breath. "Okay. Okay, we can't give up. He's probably just gotten pulled by the current, or he got disoriented and swam the wrong way, away from the boat. It's dark, maybe we missed him." Ollie nodded, slowly gaining confidence in his words. "He's out there, he can't just be <em>gone</em>. We aren't too far from the island's shore, maybe he ended up there. We just... need to look harder."</p><p>"Fuck. Okay." Richard rose a hand to swipe his hair out of his eyes. "Okay. It's too shallow around the island to get close enough to circle around and see up the shore with how dark it is, so we'll go to the island, and we'll tie up the boat and walk around. He probably swam there or got washed up there by the current. He'll be there." Richard nodded, moving back to the wheel as he tried to reassure himself and the others. "<em>He'll be there</em>."</p><p>As the boat turned back on and they began moving through the waters again, the boat was silent. The four men that had previously been so exuberant and wild were now quiet and still, minds occupied with thoughts of their friend and the low chances of them finding him alive.</p><p> </p><p>Till grumbled to himself as he picked up the scent of blood in the water. It was faint, but still there, very obvious to the merman.</p><p>The merman assumed that it was probably some poor fish caught by a midnight fisher or something, and didn't pause in his scavenging. He currently hadn't found much of value or interest to him, but he hoped that he'd soon find something interesting that had been thrown away by the humans that visited the island as he liked incorporating human-made things into his crafts.</p><p>As he flicked his tail and floated further along m the shallow shore, only inches beneath the gently shifting surface of the lake, something shiny glinted in the moonlight that penetrated the water and caught Till's wandering eyes. He quickly swam over to it and drug a hand through the dirt and weeds, before frowning as he pulled up an empty bottle. As he held the bottle up, the moonlight filtering through the amber glass cast pretty shapes across the sand, drawing Till's eyes as he watched the shapes wave and shiver as he moved the bottle around.</p><p>As the pull of the soft waves pulled Till closer to the shore, the scent of blood grew stronger. It grows so strong that Till can almost taste it. The water was also tinged, not enough for there to be a ton of blood, but still enough to be a significant amount.</p><p>Till dropped the bottle and let it drift back down to the dirt and weeds as he moved further up the bank, carefully poking his head above the water and into the air as he looked around. If the source of the blood was a fish or some animal, Till supposed it would be worth finding it. If the creature was still alive, Till could put it out of its misery. If it was dead, he could move its body away to somewhere where the scent of blood wouldn't distract him as much.</p><p>As he carefully scanned the shore, his eyes quickly spotted the limp shape collapsed on the ground, halfway submerged in the water, the small waves gently lapping at their form.</p><p>Red blood stained the ground around their head, spilling out in a shape reminiscent of a halo.</p><p>Till quickly swam as close up to the shore as he could, before using his arms to drag himself further up the shore when the water became too shallow for his tail to be of use.</p><p>As he got close enough to make out the details of the slumped shape, his eyes widened in surprise.</p><p>It was a <em>human</em>.</p><p>A young adult male, maybe around the same age as Till.</p><p>The human was sprawled out on his side, his legs stretched out into the water with one arm awkwardly pinned beneath the weight of his body, and the other thrown out over his head, almost as if in a desperate attempt to drag himself further up the shore and out of the water</p><p>As Till hovered over the motionless form of the human, he could now see that the blood had been coming from a deep gash on his forehead that was just above his eyebrow. It seemed to have stopped bleeding, but the unconscious human's face was still stained with a lot of blood that it had lost.</p><p>What had happened to him?</p><p>Till cautiously reached out, and poked his shoulder roughly.</p><p>The human didn't as much as twitch.</p><p>Till let out a shaky sigh, moving his hand to gently pat the human's cheek.</p><p>Was he dead?</p><p>Till was pretty sure humans weren't supposed to be so pale, and he knew that their chests were supposed to move when they took in the air that they needed to survive.</p><p>This one's chest was still.<br/> <br/>Till shook the man again, this time rougher in an attempt to wake the human up.</p><p>There was no response, despite the small amount of water that leaked from his blue-tinted lips and dribbled down his chin.</p><p>There was water in the human's lungs. Merpeople could breathe in water and be fine. From what Till knew of humans, they couldn't do that. Too much water killed them if it got inside of them.</p><p>So, the obvious conclusion was that he needed to get the water out.</p><p>Till had once spied on a group of human children having a celebration or something on the shores of the lake, and he remembered the older adult humans that were there with the children giving a demonstration on how to help humans when they swallow water before letting the young humans go into the water swim.<br/><br/>Hopefully he could still remember what they had shown the children to do.</p><p>Till placed two fingers against the cool skin of the human's neck, letting out a sigh of relief as he felt a steady beat moving against his appendage. Till didn't know much about humans and the workings of their bodies, but he did know that movement was good. Movement meant they were alive. But the human was still limp, his head tilted sideways on the sand, his mouth agape and his eyes shut.</p><p>The merman shoved his hands beneath the human's body and heaved the smaller man onto his back before using his arms to pull himself up to sit beside the man's head, leaning down and placing an ear to the man's face to listen for any sound of breathing.</p><p>There was nothing.</p><p>If Till remembered correctly, that meant that the human needed Till to breathe for him until he could do it for himself again.</p><p>The human better be a nice one, for all the effort Till was going to to keep it alive.</p><p>The merman gently placed a hand on the human's chin and tilted its head backward and held its mouth open, quickly sucking in a deep breath of the fresh air before pressing his lips against the motionless human's lips, holding the human's nose shut as he powerfully exhaled the air into the human's still lungs. He could see the human's chest rise, before falling again as the breath was pushed out by his own body. Till pushed himself up and sucked in another breath, before sealing their lips together and pushing air into the human's lungs for another time.</p><p>Till repeated the process for a few more times, nervously waiting a few tense seconds every pair of breaths, before continuing the breath-giving once again as the human failed to wake.</p><p>Till waited a few seconds to observe the human before going back to breathe for him, when the human's body convulsed and it let out a cough before its head tilted to the side and a stream of water and a few meager food contents from his stomach expelled themselves forcefully from his stomach, the vomit pooling on the wet sand beneath his head.</p><p>Till let out his held breath as the human collapsed back into the sand, its chest heaving as the human greedily sucked in breath after breath.</p><p>As the human noisily drew in breath after breath to replenish all the oxygen he had gone without, his body curled into itself, his head tucked into his chest as he wheezed.</p><p>Till only watched, unsure whether to reveal his presence or slip away into the night.</p><p>You could never know with humans...</p><p> </p><p>Paul came to with groan, a wet cough expelled from his throat as he turned to spew a gross mix of water and bile onto the ground.</p><p>As he drew in breath after breath into his oxygen-starved lungs, his body curled into the fetal position almost against his will, his head tucking itself against his knees as he loudly wheezed.</p><p>After a few minutes of recovering his breath and letting everything sink in, Paul weakly let his head fall to the side and rest against the sand. As he glanced around, he caught sight of a tall form hunched over him, presumably the person who had saved him.</p><p>"Richard?" Paul could only see the blurry form of the person's body through his watery eyes and the features were obscured by the shadows of night, but he guessed it was Richard from the height. "What happened?"</p><p>"I'm not Richard, and I don't know what happened to you." Paul softly gasped as a low voice came from the person, his savior obviously not one of his friends. "I found you in the shallows."</p><p>"Thank you.." Paul coughed wetly, raising his hand to wipe away the droplets of water that had fallen into his eyes from his soaked hair, looking over to see a large man with a soft smile and dark hair tucked behind one of his ears at his side. "I would've died if you hadn't been here."</p><p>"You're welcome." The man smiled back at Paul, before moving back, oddly using his arms to pull himself away from Paul's form.</p><p>Paul found that odd, until he looked down at the man's legs.</p><p>Or, lack thereof.</p><p>Paul blinked.</p><p>This man had a tail. And scales. And fins.</p><p>"You're... a mermaid!"</p><p>The man - mermaid? - scoffed, muscled arms raising to cross across his bare chest. "Mermaid? I'm no girl. I'm a mer<em>man.</em>"</p><p>"Oh.. right. Sorry" Paul chuckled as he used a shaking arm to push himself up, propping himself up as he got to eye level with the beautiful merman. "Well Mister Merman, I'm Paul," Paul extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, thanks for saving me!."</p><p>"Well... Paul," The merman hesitantly reached out and shook Paul's hand for a moment before letting it go. "I'm Till. And you're welcome."</p><p>"Till? That's a nice name." Paul smiled, eyes wandering down to look over Till's tail. "I've never met a merman before."</p><p>"And I've never met a nice human before." Till tilted his head inquisitively as Paul stared at his tail. "You're taking this surprisingly well, for a human."</p><p>"Well I mean," Paul shrugged nonchalantly. "If a giraffe can exist, is it really that weird to imagine that basically a human with a tail instead of legs can also exist?"</p><p>"Giraffe..?" The merman was obviously confused by the foreign word as he repeated it.</p><p>"It's a twenty-foot tall... you know what, never mind." Paul chuckled as he moved into a more comfortable position on the sand. "It's just a weird animal."</p><p>"You're a weird human." Till shook his head, a soft smile appearing on his face. "It's good to meet you, I suppose. I don't really have many people to talk with as I'm the only merperson living in this lake."</p><p>"Oh no!" Paul frowned sympathetically as Till spoke. "Where is your family?"</p><p>"They're, ah... gone. Have been for a while." Till grimly replied. "My mother got stuck in a fishers net when I was younger, she got the ropes wrapped around her neck. She died before me and my father could get her free. My father died only weeks later. The heartbreak I guess."</p><p>"Oh- I'm..." Paul hesitantly reached out and patted Till on the arm. "I'm so sorry."</p><p>"Well, it's not like you left that net there, right? Anyways - what were you doing out here?" Till quickly changed the topic motioned out to the lake. "You were unconscious and bleeding when I found you."</p><p>"Well I was boating with my friends, and-"</p><p>"Paul? Paul where are you?!" A voice rang out from over the top of the hill the shore led up to, echoing across the water as Paul and Till turned to see a shadowy form clambering over the top of the shore, the bright light from his phone's flashlight causing Paul to grimace and throw up an arm to block out the sudden light that was cast into his eyes. "Paul!"</p><p>"Schneider?!" Paul cried out at the voice of his friend, before the soft splash of something hitting water drew his eyes to the lake, just in time to see Till - just far enough to not be pulled from the shadows by Schneider's flashlight - quickly dragging himself into the water, tail dragging behind himself as he used his muscled and powerful arms to pull himself deeper and deeper, his form quickly disappearing into the shadowy water.</p><p>"Paul! There you are!"</p><p>"Till, wait-" Paul weakly protested as Till sunk beneath the waves, only giving Paul a wide-eyed look of fear before disappearing from sight. "Till!"</p><p>"Paul? Who are you talking to?" Schneider crashed to his knees beside Paul, hands quickly reaching out to pull Paul's form onto his lap, fingers gently probing the sluggishly bleeding wound on the man's forehead as Paul confusedly looked up at him. "Are you okay?!"</p><p>"I was..." Paul hesitated. "It was nobody. I was... confused I guess."</p><p>Till had looked so terrified at the chance of being seen by another human, Paul wouldn't expose the merman without his permission. Not yet at least...</p><p>"What happened? How did you get here?" Schneider was beside himself with worry, his hands moving over Paul's body as he searched for any more injuries. "I'm so sorry man! This is all my fault..."</p><p>"I just.. woke up on the shore." Paul smiled up at Schneider, patting him consolingly on the thigh. "And don't worry. I'm alright now, I just want to go back home."</p><p>"Alright. We'll need to have Flake look at that cut, it's stopped but it looked like it was bleeding a lot." Schneider let out a relieved chuckle, his breath shaky as he exhaled. "You really scared us, man."</p><p>"Sorry.." Paul yawned, hit with a sudden wave of tiredness, slumping against his friend's chest as Schneider loudly hollered back up the shore, the forms of Richard, Ollie, and Flake appearing over the top of the shore moments later and the three quickly clambering down to gather around Schneider and Paul, the recently-drowned man could only stare out at the water where Till had disappeared.</p><p>As Ollie and Richard pulled Paul to his wobbly feet and settled him into a piggyback on Schneider's back for the trek back to where they had left the boat anchored down the shore from where Paul had washed up, Paul settled his head against Schneider's neck and gazed out at the dark waters.</p><p>Would he ever see the merman again..?</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's pretty obvious, but I had no idea how to end this. But ah well, it's something.<br/>I have a few ideas of another story for this universe where Paul  goes back to the lake and sees Till again and maybe Till meets the others, but we'll see if I ever get around to making it.</p><p>I also have a Benzin AU with Till as an arsonist that falls in love with the firefighter that keeps on fighting his fires in the work, so that may come first. We shall see if my muse is kind to me :)</p><p>Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>  <a href="https://explorersnotepad.tumblr.com/">My Tumblr</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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